[CarolandJohn]

Hello, we asked to pay for our dual fuel as we use it rather than paying a set amount each month and building up a lot of credit. However we have just had an e mail to say we have to pay over £300 per month to cover our usage!!!! This has horrified us, there is no way we can afford to pay this much. Is this just a computer generated letter? we dont know where to turn for help. Any advise would be welcome, thank you

[retrotecchie]

@CarolandJohn

You need to phone Customer Services and ask to be put onto Variable Direct Debit. This can't be done online on your account.

On VDD you will be billed for your exact monthly usage, but they will deduct from any outstanding credit first, reducing your credit balance, before they need to take money out of your bank. You will pay more in winter when your bills are higher, but less in summer when they are lower, but you will only be paying for the energy you actually use.

No-one in the office today but you can get them between 9am and 4pm, Monday to Friday on 0808 501 5200.

Many of us on here use Variable Direct Debit and there is definitely a benefit to seeing a zero balance every month after the correct payment has been taken. Don't forget, any interest on a credit balance is their money, not yours!

[Tommysgirl]

@CarolandJohn

Excellent advice from @retrotecchie. I'm on variable monthly direct debit too, and it works fine for me. The only thing I can add is, when you call Customer Services, they'll possibly try and persuade you to pay a fixed amount each month, but insist you want to pay by variable Direct Debit, and they can sort it immediately while you're on the phone. I'd ask for an email confirmation from them too.👍

[Mailman]

@CarolandJohn

One other thing to add is for you to confirm with Eon Next when the first Variable Direct Debit (VDD) payment takes place. Also remember that the VDD will zeroise any debit balance on your account unless you have built up so much credit that Eon Next will use the existing credit to pay for the account balance until such time as your account goes into a debit balance after the bill is raised. Then you will find that the VDD will match your monthly bill exactly. I find the system works very smoothly once set up correctly.

[Lee_EONNext]

@CarolandJohn

Hi

The office is closed as it's the weekend. You can call either in the morning or pop us a message using social media? If you click on where it says 'here' on my signature you should be able to contact us via Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp.

The phone teams will be open again at 9am tomorrow. Sometimes the letters are system generated, however if you get in touch with customer services, they should be able to resolve this for you 😀

Let me know how you get on.

[JoeSoap]

@CarolandJohn

Variable Direct Debit is definitely the way to go if you just want to pay for what you use each month. If I paid that way I would love the summer months where my bill would be about £150 but I wouldn't like the £500+ bill for December and the other winter months. £250 every month Fixed DD suits me better for sure. It's currently less than that due to a good credit balance but at the end of this contract I will start at around zero and simply pay the Estimated Annual Cost divided by 12 each month for the following year.

It's a personal choice and Fixed DDs can take a while to settle at the right amount for sure so hopefully you can get the best result for you when you speak to customer service.